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transportation
'Oil Industry Wins' as Trump Transportation Chief Targets Biden Clean Car Rules
"Sean Duffy is selling American families out to Big Oil, burdening us with higher fuel prices and more polluting gas-guzzlers that harm our health," said one campaigner.
Jan 29, 2025
In a move decried by climate and environmental advocates, newly confirmed Republican U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Tuesday directed agency staff to immediately begin the process of rescinding or replacing former President Joe Biden's historic clean car pollution standards.
Duffy's first official act after being confirmed by the U.S. Senate in a 77-22 vote was to sign a memo acknowledging Republican President Donald Trump's policy of promoting fossil fuel use and ordering National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) personnel to "commence an immediate review and reconsideration of all existing fuel economy standards applicable to all models of motor vehicles produced from model year 2022 forward."
The memo singles out Biden's finalized Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, which regulate how far vehicles must travel on a single gallon of fuel. U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) officials estimated the new standards would have pushed the average fuel efficiency of new cars and sport utility vehicles over 50 miles per gallon by 2031. The Biden administration subsequently weakened the rules.
"The memorandum signed today specifically reduces the burdensome and overly restrictive fuel standards that have needlessly driven up the cost of a car in order to push a radical Green New Deal agenda," Duffy said in a statement. "The American people should not be forced to sacrifice choice and affordability when purchasing a new car."
However, according to a 2024 NHTSA analysis, Biden's CAFE standards would have saved consumers nearly $23 billion in fuel costs and avoided the burning of approximately 70 billion gallons of gasoline through 2050.
Critics of the Trump administration's fossil fuel agenda also underscored the importance of CAFE standards in reducing gasoline and diesel consumption and combating planetary heating, which is driven primarily by burning fossil fuels. Some also noted that Duffy questions whether human activity is causing climate change.
"These commonsense, popular fuel economy standards save drivers money at the pump and reduce dangerous pollution from vehicles," Karen García, director of the Sierra Club's Clean Transportation for All campaign, said in a statement Wednesday. "Drivers spend excessive amounts of money to fuel their cars, and it's often a large part of household expenses."
"Sean Duffy is selling American families out to Big Oil, burdening us with higher fuel prices and more polluting gas-guzzlers that harm our health," García added.
Duffy's announcement is part of a wider Trump administration push to roll back Biden's efforts to boost electric vehicles. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is also taking aim at California's plan to ban the sale of gasoline-only new vehicles by 2035.
"As sad as it is, it's no surprise that climate denier Sean Duffy's first act at DOT is to advance Trump's harmful deregulatory agenda and roll back fuel economy standards," Will Anderson, electric vehicle policy advocate with Public Citizen's Climate Program, said Wednesday.
"Such a rollback would not only hinder consumer choices for more fuel-efficient vehicles while putting the U.S. auto industry further behind global competitors, it would raise consumer's costs when fueling—all to boost oil and gas industry profits," Anderson added.
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'Dirty and Dumb!' Trump May Cancel Contracts to Electrify USPS Fleet
"It's stuff like this that will cost us manufacturing jobs/opportunities," warned one critic.
Dec 06, 2024
As part of President-elect Donald Trump's mission to roll back the Biden administration's climate policies, the Republican may cancel contracts to electrify the U.S. Postal Service's fleet, Reutersrevealed Friday, citing unnamed sources familiar with transition team discussions.
"The sources told Reuters that Trump's transition team is now reviewing how it can unwind the Postal Service's multibillion-dollar contracts, including with Oshkosh and Ford for tens of thousands of battery-driven delivery trucks and charging stations," according to the news agency.
The USPS in December 2022 announced a five-year $9.6 billion investment that involved electrifying 75% of its next-generation delivery vehicles and installing modern charging infrastructure. That came just months after President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, which included $3 billion in funding for the endeavor.
Ford did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment on Friday, while Oshkosh said that it "is fully committed to our strong partnership with the USPS and looks forward to continuing to provide our postal carriers with reliable, safe, and sustainable modern delivery vehicles, even as USPS' needs continue to evolve."
The USPS also did not respond to requests for comment and Trump transition team spokesperson Karoline Leavitt declined to address his Postal Service plans, only saying that "President Trump will protect the freedom of Americans to drive whichever vehicle they choose, enhance his tough tariffs on Chinese-imported cars, and save the U.S. auto industry for generations to come. No policy should be deemed official unless it comes directly from President Trump."
During the campaign, Trump pledged to roll back Biden's climate policies if Big Oil poured $1 billion into getting him elected. He also attacked the Democrat's efforts to promote a shift to electric vehicles (EVs). Transportation accounts for the largest portion of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and the United States is the world's top historic emitter.
Even under Biden, U.S. plans to limit planet-heating pollution did not align with the country's contributions to the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency—but climate scientists and advocates widely backed his and later Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign leading up to last month's election, recognizing the threat posed by Trump.
John Hanger, a Democrat who previously held various envirnomental and energy positions in Pennsylvania's government, responded to the Reuters reporting on social media: "Ugh! Canceling contracts to electrify transportation of USPS would be dirty and dumb!"
Meanwhile, Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, said that "it's stuff like this that will cost us manufacturing jobs/opportunities."
Some critics also speculated whether such contracts may be redone to benefit Tesla. The company's CEO is Elon Musk, who is the richest man in the world, dumped around $270 million into super political action committees backing Trump's reelection bid, and is set to co-lead his forthcoming Department of Government Efficiency( DOGE) with fellow billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy.
Last month, Reuters reported on the Trump transition team's plans to kill Biden's fuel efficiency standards and a $7,500 consumer tax credit for EV purchases, which Musk was asked about while he and Ramaswamy were on Capitol Hill Thursday to meet with Republican lawmakers.
"I think we should get rid of all credits," Musk told reporters—despite his own company's reliance on Biden's EV policies.
Responding to Musk's comment in a Friday statement, Will Anderson, EV policy advocate with Public Citizen's Climate Program, said that "as someone who's asking to work for the American people through his so-called DOGE, Musk should not perpetuate crony capitalism that only benefits himself and others with access to Trump."
"If we want the American automobile industry to stay competitive in a global market," he added, "then not only should Musk recognize the benefit of the EV tax credit for American-made vehicles, but he should also recognize the negative impact billions of dollars in continuing oil and gas subsidies will have on a society that needs to transition to a zero-emission and clean-energy future."
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Amnesty Report Reveals 'Alarming' Human Rights Abuses in Extraction of EV Minerals
"As demand for electric vehicles increases, manufacturers must ensure people's human rights are respected."
Oct 15, 2024
A transition away from the fossil fuels that have powered vehicles across the globe for decades, worsening the climate emergency, is sorely needed—but an analysis out Tuesday warns that companies spearheading the shift toward electric vehicles must do so while obeying internationally recognized human rights principles, and exposes how the firms have exploited communities in pursuit of minerals for EV batteries.
In a new report, Recharge for Rights, Amnesty International ranked the human rights records of 13 major EV manufacturers, including China-based BYD, Mercedes-Benz, Tesla, and Mitsubishi, on a scale of 1-90.
None of the companies scored higher than 51, with Amnesty researchers identifying the companies' practices of forced evictions to make way for mining, subjecting workers to dangerous conditions, violating Indigenous peoples' rights, and exposing communities to environmental harm.
"While some progress was made, across the board, the scores were a massive disappointment," said Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty.
The companies have all stepped up mining development efforts as the International Energy Agency has said demand for minerals used in EV batteries—including cobalt, lithium, nickel, and copper—is expected to increase ninefold between 2024-50. Mineral industry analysts say more than 350 new mines will need to be opened by 2035 to meet demand.
But in the rush to extract the minerals, Callamard said, the companies are "putting immense pressures on mining-affected communities."
"The human rights abuses tied to the extraction of energy transition minerals are alarming and pervasive and the industry's response is sorely lacking," she said. "As demand for electric vehicles increases, manufacturers must ensure people's human rights are respected."
Previous research by Amnesty has found that "industrial cobalt is linked to forced evictions in the Democratic Republic of Congo," said Callamard. "Car companies need to use their massive leverage as global minerals buyers to influence upstream mining companies and smelters to mitigate these human rights risks."
The report ranked companies on whether they have publicly available human rights policies, monitor human rights due diligence, and remediate human rights grievances.
BYD, the world's second-largest EV manufacturer, performed the worst on the group's scorecard, with 11 out of 90. Along with Hyundai and Mitsubishi, also low performers, the company published little to no information about its human rights due diligence.
"None of these three multinationals published information demonstrating that they are trying to understand the human rights impacts of their battery metal sourcing," said Amnesty. "None of the three companies reported mapping these supply chains, nor demonstrated that they had identified specific risks."
Mercedes-Benz was the highest performing company with 51 out of 90, indicating "a moderate demonstration of alignment with international standards."
Amnesty called on companies to implement human rights due diligence processes "to identify, prevent, mitigate, and account for how they address adverse human rights impacts that they may cause, contribute to, or be directly linked to through their operations, products, or services."
All carmakers must bring their due diligence efforts "in line with international human rights standards" as outlined in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, said Callamard. "We are also calling on governments to strengthen their own human rights due diligence regulation over the companies incorporated on their territories or their exports and import licenses."
Companies and the governments that import and export their goods must acknowledge that "human rights isn't just a fluff phrase, but an issue they take seriously," added Callamard. "It's time to shift gears and ensure electric vehicles don't leave behind a legacy of human rights abuses—instead, the industry must drive a just energy future that leaves no one behind."
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